The Rangers kick off training camp today. New York has 54 players in camp, 32 forwards, 17 defense men and five goalies. That 54th player and 32nd forward was added yesterday with the Rangers signing Andrew Desjardins (more on him below) to a PTO that included an invite to camp. Included in that list is several players who played in the recently completed Traverse City tournament (more directly below)
I think most of us were disappointed in what we saw or read about that took place in Traverse City. Adam Herman had solid blogs summarizing the daily performances while Leslie Treff posted a review of the team following the tourney. Both were probably even a bit too kind because very little good transpired in the ice. A few players may have stood out slightly (Neal Pionk, Brandon Crawley, Ryan Gropp at times, and the goalies) but none really tremendously improved their standing on the team, while many actually may have hurt their chances at breaking camp with the team.
Granted, it's just four games and it it's a rookie tournament, but given the expectations many of us had going in, it's hard not to view the collective performance as disappointing. That rough showing did not go overlooked by Gord Clark. Other than Crawley, Chris Nell and Alexander Georgiev, Clark basically called out everyone, especially and including Lias Andersson late in his overall comments.
Gord Clark on Traverse City performance:
As mentioned above, the Rangers have 54 players in camp. The majority of them likely have little chance of breaking camp with the parent club but camp and the pre-season will hopefully provide some answers as to the back-end of the lineup and defensive pairing. Tomorrow, I will get into my key questions heading into camp.
Here is the Training Camp roster:
OFFICIAL: #NYR Roster for 2017 Training Camp #NYRTC. pic.twitter.com/ODA9lkFL6x
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 13, 2017
Desjardins, who spent the past few seasons with Chicago after coming over from San Jose, provided another possible 4th line option. He is mainly a center but can play on the wing. Desjardins does bring a bit of physical play, especially in the corners, and has a high motor but is in no way shape or form a scorer at all.
Desjardins, won the Stanley Cup with the Hawks in 2015, was banged up last year, which adversely affected his advanced metrics numbers. He averaged just 9:24 of ice time last year, so if he does make the roster, we could very easily see AV go with 11 forwards at time, benching Desjardins. In fact, due to the blue line depth, a lineup of 11F/7D could be more common than first expected. On the good side, Desjardins has won 53.5% of his draws, which is a major area of weakness for New York.
He would not have been my first, second or even fifth choice for a PTO. As you know, I mentioned Daniel Winnik, who I liked better for this role, but he got a PTO in Minnesota. Thomas Vanek was supposedly on the Rangers' radar early, but they backed away, and he ended up in Detroit. New York was in on Alex Kerfoot as a college free agent but he signed with Colorado. New York didn't offer Nicklas Jensen a QO and he went overseas while Marek Hrivik ended up in Calgary due to the same reason; each of whom could have filled a bottom-six role for the Rangers. Jaromir Jagr is amazingly still out there, and while the foot speed is likely gone, I still feel - as I wrote in my blog - that he wouldn't be a bad addition.
Desjardins provides some competition to Boo Nieves and Andersson in the Rangers' training camp. If he does earn a role, that might mean David Desharnais moves up the 3C and J.T. Miller stays at wing. Part of the decision may depend on how healed Jesper Fast is from his off-season hip surgery. He believes he will be ready for the start of the year, but if I am the Rangers, I would rather give him an extra week or two and make sure he is 100% rather than risk the potential of any form of setback.
I will get into this tomorrow in my key questions heading into camp. But for all the talk of trading/losing Derek Stepan, you could argue losing Oscar Lindberg to expansion might have been a bigger subtraction. Lindberg found his game late in the year and was very good in the playoffs. If he somehow remained, how different would the center depth look with him as the 3C? With Zib, Hayes and Lindberg down the middle, would the arguments of New York being a doughnut team still apply? Lindberg showed late some of the offensive aptitude he displayed when he first broke camp with the Rangers while also providing solid defensive play.
Now, even if Desh and Desjardins earn the 3 and 4 spot, major questions exist at that spot. That's especially true on the fourth line, where it moves from a weapon to a shadow of itself. Last year in the playoffs, New York deployed Michael Grabner-Lindberg-Fast as the bottom trio; a grouping that was able to score and also be responsible defensively. Now, we may be looking at Matt Puempel-Desjardins-Fast as the fourth line, which is a far cry from the trio utilized in the playoffs.
Voting for the worst trade in Rangers' history is still live. We are at about 400 votes at press time. I am hoping we get a lot more. When the results are revealed, I will provide my five worst trades from the 36 originally listed for the voting and my worst overall. Here is the link where to vote: https://vote.pollcode.com/42568975